I've been training to run the Mud Run since mid January. And I guess I have to call it "training" because 90% of it wasn't really the sort of fun that going on an aimless biking ride that happens to go up a mountain or two is. And I recognize that becoming the sort of person who trains for an organized run is an odd and strange thing considering who I was.

The control of information is critical to embedding questionable thoughts in a person's brain. Make somebody feel like the world is screwed up and going in the wrong direction is a great way to scare them and therefore shove your fascist beliefs down their throat. I tend to be cynical on the short term but optimistic over the long scale, which I largely feel is because, while there's a very long trigger time before the urge to ferment violent rebellion hits, eventually you reach the triggering point if the problem hasn't been otherwise fixed. But I thought I'd mention a few positive happy facts that a lot of people really don't want to admit to because these are the ways that they can control you. And, with an eye towards a bit more irony than strictly required, I'm posting it on Sunday...

I understand that the people who say these things are well within the throes of cognitive dissonance... a cognitive dissonance that they have been manipulated to by people who do not consider a ''pious lie'' something other than a fancy excuse for what is still a lie. But you have a whole lot of people who try to use the bible to justify changes in the very much secular American government.. but who scream and yell about the separation of church and state when anything doesn''t go their way...

I'm really annoyed and upset about something that is completely not my story to tell and, if anything, not about me. So I'm going to talk about something vaguely tangential to what I'm upset about that happened a good number of years ago instead. Which is one of my more intense brushes with mental illness that I made it through without most people I know actually realizing what was going on. And nobody knew for good reason. Somehow it's a subject that people don't want to talk about that much, as if you somehow catch mental illness like you catch other illnesses... but sometimes something needs to be said.